The Nature of Wales – Mostly !!

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Month: February 2014

I spent Saturday in Hereford , its the end of February and the Hares now start to have mating on their mind, in some ways this makes life a bit easier for me as they’re not so wary. and there’s a good chance of some action shots , with them running around and boxing.

Saturday went well from the off with three Hares in one field and happy to stay there just moving around every now and then , we even had one come through the hedge behind us within ten feet – only to beat a hasty retreat as soon as it realised we were there !

Only one fly in the ointment, i forgot to check the settings on the camera , the record file size was set to small – aaaaarrrgh ! but as it was they turned out OK. Weirdly when i switched it to RAW the focus success hit rate went down, a topic of discussion for you Mr C.

Saturday started off on a not too promising start , with early downpours and windy conditions. But later it brightened up and joy of joy – Blue Sky – i nearly passed out !

The Hare thing wasn’t going too well with some missed opportunities , i had one come around a corner right in front of me , surprising the Hare and me !

Out on the fields one did the decent thing and sat still for a moment , a stroke of luck ,as most of the time you’re reacting to sudden surprises ,But each time i learn a bit more and think next time i’ll crack it !

Just a quick glance up the garden and i saw the Buzzard was feeding on the bird table , on seeing me it flew off , giving me time to set up the camera with a wireless trigger – keeping the trigger in my pocket i went inside and carried on with some work while keeping an eye out for its hopeful return . It was almost 5 oclock before it returned, with fading light i pressed the trigger , hoping the range was not too great.

The shutter speed was down to 1/13 of a second at Iso 800 but the result wasn’t too bad considering it was a spur of the moment thing !

After i had retrieved the camera the Buzzard was back again by 5-30 till 5-45 pm.

Perhaps not the best weather to be out in the open with a camera, but its better than being indoors wishing you’d gone out. Yesterday was pretty grim, with the occasional bright spell, (blink and you miss it !)

But although the weather was fairly grotty the Hares were still moving around, but i only managed to get close the one time when one came trotting down the track towards me, seeing me crouched in the hedge bottom at the last minute, less than six meters away , i know it was less than six meters because the lens wouldn’t focus – i’d set it to six meters plus – Damn!

Waking up this morning at 6-00am , i was in two minds whether to bother going out, the Weather forecast said it was going to be rain and bright intervals, it didn’t even look that good at Six. But make a plan and stick to it !

I’m glad i did as later on in the morning this otter turned up , it was one of the best views i’ve seen locally. The others in Ireland and Orkney. The whole encounter was over in a minute at most – but well worth the trip.